1932
Jan. 1
The Mystery Woman
Alice MacGowan
Perry Newberry
Detective Novel
Grosset & Dunlap
W’ton. Del.
Jan. 6
The Glenlitten Murder
E. Phillips Oppenheim
A. L. Burt & Co.
Detective Novel
W’ton. Del.
Jan. 7
Fatal Interview
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Sonnet Sequence
Harper Bros.
W’ton. Del.
[10.]
1932
Jan. 7
A Room in Berlin
Günther Birkinfeld
Translated from German by Eric Sutton
A most remarkable and poignant novel.
Horace Liveright
W’ton. Del.
Jan. 13
Grapes of Canaan
Elma Ehlrich Levinger
The Stratford Co.
A delightful novel of Wilmington and Wilmingtonian-Jews by a Jewess.
W’ton. Del.
[11.]
1932
Jan. 16
Colours
Remy de Gourmont
Trans. by Frederic Reeves Ashfield
Blue Faun Publications – NY
Exquisite short stories all but 2 – Gray and Saffron which are by Ashfield – not Gourmont
Wilm. Del.
Jan. 18
The Holy Experiment
Violet Oakley
Being the grand illuminated mural of the history of Wm. Penn & Pennsylvania with the explanation of the mural paintings of the capitol of Harrisburg. Done by hand.
History –
Harrisburg, Pa.
[12.]
1932
Jan. 23
Murder in the Squire’s Pew
J. S. Fletcher
Alfred A. Knopf
Detective Novel
Wil. Del.
Jan. 26
The Case with Nine Solutions
J. J. Connington [i]
Detective Novel
Little, Brown & Co.
Wil. Del.
Jan. 29
The Chinaberry Tree
Jessie Fausett [ii]
Very excellent novel of Negro life.
Stokes Co.
Wil. Del.
[13.]
1932
Jan. 30
The Big Pink
Hugh MacNair Kahler
Serial Novel – Collier’s Weekly
W’ton. Del.
Feb. 1
The Umbrella Murder
Carolyn Wells
Lippincott Co.
Detective Thriller
W’ton. Del.
Feb. 3
Twilight Men
Andre Tellier
Greenberg Co.
Novel. A male Well of Loneliness, but not so beautiful.
W’ton. Del.
[14.]
Feb. 8 / 32
My First 2000 Years
George Sylvester Viereck and Paul Eldridge
Gold Label Books
A most remarkable & chilling narrative – the autobiography of the Wandering Jew.
W’ton. Del.
Feb. 10
The Undercurrent
Fay Ehlert
Samuel French & Co.
Drama
Wilm. Del.
[15.]
Feb. 16
Serenade
Olive Wadsley
Dodd, Mead & Co.
Novel: A “singer circus” sort of story.
W’ton. Del.
Feb. 18
The Greek
Tiffany Thayer
Albert & Chas. Boni
Novel: Fantastic, unreal, but amusing literature.
W’ton. Del.
Feb. 24
Martin’s Summer
Vicki Baum
Cosmopolitan Corporation
Novel
Phila. Pa.
[16.]
Feb. 28
Call Her Savage
Tiffany Thayer
Novel – Unusual, of course … suggests Fay Jackson [iii]
Claude Kendall – Publisher
W’ton. Del.
Mch. 6
Loads of Love
Anne Parrish
Harper’s
Novel – Delightful
W’ton. Del.
Jan. [n.d.]
Rackety Rax
Joel Sayre
[Serial – American] Mercury – Novel
W’ton. Del.
[17.]
Mch. 15
Thirteen Men
Tiffany Thayes
Novel – Perhaps, Biographies of 13 men. Tiffany Thayer at [his] best.
Claude Kendall – Pub.
W’ton. Del.
Mch. 29
One Way to Heaven
Countee Cullen
Novel – Pointless. Needless.
Harper’s
Phila. Pa.
March 30
Rise of American Civilization Vol. II
Chas. A. & Mary R. Beard
Macmillan Co.
History
Wilm. Del.
[18.]
Apl. 9
Ex-Husband
Anonymous (and it should be)
Macaulay Company
W’ton. Del.
Apl. 16
The Golden Years
[Sir Phillip Armand] Hamilton Gibbs
Novel – of years gone. Very lovely.
Harper
W’ton. Del.
Apl. 16
American Beauty
Edna Ferber
Novel
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
W’ton. Del.
[19.]
April 26
The Missing Millions
Edgar Wallace
Mystery thriller
A. L. Burt & Co.
Phila. Pa.
May 7
All Passion Spent
V. Sackville West
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Exquisite –
W’ton. Del.
May 19
Infants of the Spring
Wallace Thurman
Awful –
Between Richmond Va. & Wash. D.C.
[20]
May 8
Our Times [iv]
Mark Sullivan 2. Vols.
Harper Bros.
History
Gorgeous
Wil. Del.
May 25
The Good Earth
Pearl [S.] Buck
Lovely story of China
John A. Day Co.
Wil. Del.
May 31
Hospital
Rhoda Truax
E. P. Dutton
Novel – unique
Wil. Del.
[21.]
June 12
Bright Skin
Julia Peterkin
Novel – Slow motion picture
Bobbs-Merrill
W’ton. Del.
June 12
The Brown Thrush
Anthology of Negro College Verse
Edited by Lillian W. Voorhees
Robt. W. O’Brien
Poetry
Talladega [college] & Tougaloo [college]
Lawson-Roberts Pub. Co.
[22.]
June 13
Nature Notes and Impressions
Madison Cawein
Poetry and Revery in Prose [v]
E. P. Dutton & Co.
Wil. Del.
June 13
Arbor Day in Poetry
Poems chosen by Com. Carnegie Library School Assn. [vi]
H. W. Wilson Co.
Wil. Del.
June 13
Cheiro’s Book of Numbers
Chiero[vii]
Garden City Pub. Co.
Wil. Del.
[23.]
June 15
A Modern Hero
Louis Bromfield
Fred A. Stokes Co.
Novel
Wil. Del.
June 20
Our Darktown Press
Mrs. Octavus Roy Cohen
(Inez) [Lopez]
Collection of “Boners” from Negro newspapers.
D. Appleton & Co.
W’ton. Del.
June 23
Gingertown
Claude Mackaye
Short Stories – Harper Bros.
W’ton. Del.
[24.]
July 5
Old Wine & New
Warwick Deeping
Novel
Alfred A. Knopf
New York
July 9
Murder in the French Room
Helen Joan Hultman
Mystery League
Novel
Wil. Del.
July 13
Late September
Gladys Johnson
Novel –
Macrae Smith Co.
Wil. Del.
[25.]
Aug. 4
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
Warden Lewis E. Lawes, Ray Long, R. Smith
Autobiography & Essay on Social Problems.
W’ton. Del.
Aug. 8
Secret Sentence
Vicki Baum
Trans. by Eric Sutton
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Novel
W’ton. Del.
Aug. 10
The Store
T. S. Stribling
Doubleday, Doran
Novel
Superlative! Po’ Whites & Negroes in Alabama.
W’ton. Del.
[26.]
Aug. 12
Shoe the Wild Horse
Gene Fowler
Horace Liveright
Novel. Exotic, interesting trash.
Wilm. Del.
Aug. 18
Faraway
J. B. Priestley
Novel. Thrilling
Wilm. Del.
Aug. 31
Miss Pinkerton
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Detective Novel
Farrar & Rinehart
Ocean City, N.J.
[27.]
Sept. 1 / 32
The Green Ribbon
Edgar Wallace
The usual thriller. Novel.
Crime Club. Pub.
Ocean City, N.J.
Sept. 9
Michael’s Evil Deeds
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Little, Brown & Co.
Mystery Novel
Phila. Pa.
Sept. 12
The Conjure Man Dies
Rudolph Fisher
The first Negro mystery novel
Covici Freide
Wilm. Del.
[28.]
Sept. 15 / 32
Obscure Destines
Willa Cather
Short Stories (3)
Alfred A. Knopf
Wilm. Del.
[n.d.]
Lummox
Fannie Hurst
A. L. Burt & Co.
Novel
Phila. Pa.
[29.]
Sept. 28
The Murderer Returns
Edwin Dial Torgerson
Richard R. Smith N.Y. Pub.
Mystery Story. Clever Cat.
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 6
Lark Ascending
Marzo de la Roche
Little, Brown & Co.
Novel. Most amusing. But not Jalna
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 17
Rueful Mating
G. B. Stern
Alfred A. Knopf
Novel. Romeo & Juliet In modern dress, with a happy ending
Train, bet. W’ton & Phila.
[30.]
Oct. 26
Peter Ashley
Du Bose Heyward
Farrar & Rinehart
Novel – but far from Mamba’s Daughters. About the firing on Fort Sumter.
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 31
The Calendar
Edgar Wallace
Mystery Novel
Doubleday, Doran
Phila. Pa.
[31.]
Nov. 9
The Castleford Conundrum
J. J. Connington
Detective
Little, Brown & Co.
Wil. Del.
Dec. 7
Crooner
Rian James
Clever caricature of Rudy Vallee [viii]
Alfred H. King
Wil. Del.
Notes
[i] Pseudonym for Alfred Walter Stewart (1880-1947), a British chemist and novelist from Glasgow.
[ii] Harlem Renaissance period writer Jessie Redmond Fauset (1882-1961) maintained a casual friendship with Dunbar-Nelson for a number of years.
[iii] Fay Jackson Robinson (1902-1908) was an esteemed Los Angeles-based African American journalist with whom Dunbar-Nelson had a short-lived but spirited affair during her visit to California.
[iv] Bibliographic records indicate that Mark Sullivan’s Our Times: Turn of the Century (1926) was actually published by Charles Scribners’ Sons.
[v] The use of the term “revery” in this entry is an antiquated, alternate spelling for the word “reverie,” roughly meaning musings or meditations.
[vi] Committee of the Carnegie Library School Association.
[vii] Pseudonym of Irish-born late-nineteenth and early twentieth century Astrologer and occultist, William John Warner (1866-1936, also known as Count Louis Hamon).
[viii] Dunbar-Nelson is likening the novel to the life of Hubert Prior “Rudy” Vallée (1901-1986) in this entry, as he was part of the first generation of singer/actor celebrities to emerge in the adolescent popular culture of the twentieth century.
